by Sanderson Beck
The Byzantine empire was diminished as the Slavs and Avars
migrated from the north, and the Persians took over
most of the
Near East, including Egypt by 619.
Emperor Heraclius organized
the military to fight back,
regaining Asia Minor and Armenia and
getting Syria, Palestine,
and Egypt by a treaty with Persia in
629.
However, the Byzantines soon lost most of this to
Muslim
conquests by the time Heraclius died in 641.
The theologian Maximus had his tongue cut out and hand
cut off for disagreeing with the
Emperor on the will of Christ.
Maximus left behind writings
on
how to practice Christian love.
In their struggles for power Byzantine
Emperors mutilated
their own families; but Greek fire helped defend
Constantinople from the Muslims.
Emperor Leo III (r. 717-41) gained
control
and fought off annual Muslim attacks.
He oversaw a reform
of Byzantine law
and issued an edict against images in 726.
John
of Damascus defended icons and was the first
to apply Aristotle's
philosophy to Christian theology.
Leo's son Constantine V (r.
741-75) had to defeat
a revolt of those opposing iconoclasm.
Byzantine
wars made the Bulgarians enemies,
and Constantine V oppressed
monks.
Bulgarians led by Krum fought the Byzantine empire.
Battles
over icons went on until 843.
Religious persecution against Manichaean dualists resulted
in imperial soldiers killing 100,000 Paulicians.
After the secular
Photius was confirmed as Constantinople
Patriarch in 861, a split
developed between Roman Catholics
under the Pope and the Eastern
Orthodox.
One practical difference was the Byzantines
allowed
their clergy to marry.
Emperor Basil I (r. 867-886) banished Photius
and tried to
reconcile with Rome as the independent Bulgarian
church
recognized the supremacy of the Constantinople patriarch.
Photius was recalled in 877 but was deposed by
Emperor Leo VI
(r. 886-912).
Leo oversaw the complete revision of Byzantine
laws
that included canon law.
The Emperor took over previous powers
of the Senate and
could only be checked by the Patriarch and church
council.
Guilds developed, and aristocrats held feudal power over
serfs.
Bulgaria under Symeon (r. 893-927) defeated the
Byzantines
in 896 and invaded Greece.
After many battles Symeon's son Peter
(r. 927-69)
made a peace treaty with the Byzantines.
After being Co-emperor for thirty years and writing books,
Constantine VII (r. 945-59) used diplomacy
and restored land to
the peasants.
Nicephorus Phocas (r. 963-69) used the military
to take
power, but the Constantinople patriarch Polyeuctes
refused
to justify soldiers for killing in wars.
John Tzimisces (r. 969-76)
conquered Bulgaria
and annexed it to the Byzantine empire.
Basil
II (r. 976-1025) was not able
to consolidate his power until 989.
He invaded Macedonia and defended Syria
while restoring land to
the poor.
In conquering the Balkans Basil had 14,000 captives
blinded.
Basil expanded the Byzantine empire to its greatest extent
and by this plundering managed to lower taxes
and leave a substantial
treasury.
Several were blinded as men struggled to be Byzantine Emperor.
Wars, famine, and plague depleted the treasury, while aristocrats
gained power and wealth as feudalism developed.
Constantinople
patriarch Michael Cerularius reasserted the
authority of the Eastern
Orthodox church but caused a
permanent schism from the Roman Catholic
church in 1054.
Constantine X (r. 1059-67) tried to bring justice;
but he continued to farm out taxes and sold the highest offices
while a weakened military allowed the empire to deteriorate.
Michael
Psellus tried to develop the university,
wrote about the times,
chose Emperors,
and was even prime minister.
After the Byzantines
suffered a devastating defeat by the
Muslims in 1071, they began
appealing
to the Christian west for help.
General Alexius Comnenus
(r. 1081-1118)
won a power struggle and became Emperor.
He made
a commercial and military alliance with Venice
that secured the
Adriatic.
In literature the epic Barlaam and Ioasaph utilized
part of
the Buddha's life in a story that promotes Christian doctrines.
The popular Digenis Akritas depicts a heroic warrior
fighting for the Christians against the Muslims
on the border between their
empires.
Isidore of Seville presided over church councils in 619
and
633, and he fostered education with his Etymologies,
which
was widely read in the middle ages.
Visigothic kings ruled Spain
until Muslims invaded in 711
and quickly took over most of the
peninsula.
Franks struggled with divided kingdoms, but a coalition
behind Charles Martel in 732 defeated the Muslim invasion.
His
sons Carloman and Pippin convened church councils
that promoted
ethical reforms.
In Italy Lombard kings from Adaloald (r. 615-24)
on
were Christian, and Liutprand (r. 712-44)
consolidated the Lombard kingdom.
In 754 Pippin was anointed by the Pope and attacked
the Lombards, and Charlemagne overcame them in 774.
Charlemagne
also spent 32 years fighting
and converting the pagan Saxons.
While the Byzantines were ruled by the woman Irene,
Charlemagne
was crowned Emperor
by Pope Leo III in 800.
Franks conquered Barcelona
the next year.
In 810 Charlemagne made peace treaties with Byzantine
emperor Nicephorus I, Cordoba emir Al-Hakim,
and Dane king
Hemming.
Charlemagne gave much charity to help the poor
and promoted education through his advisor Alcuin,
who objected to bishops
being used in war
and priests in secular work.
Charlemagne's son Louis (r. 814-40) the Pious
let his sons rule parts of the Frank empire.
In 839 the empire was divided,
giving Charles the west,
Lothar the east, and Bavaria to Louis
the German.
Lothar tried to claim the empire; but his forces were
defeated
by Charles and Louis, though the treaty of Verdun in
843
gave Lothar Italy and a narrow strip to Frisia that would
become Switzerland, Belgium, and Netherlands,
separating France
from Germany.
Viking raids began in 844.
Lothar's middle kingdom
was divided
for his three sons when he died in 855.
Pope Nicholas
(858-67) claimed hierarchical authority
based on the forged "donation
of Constantine."
Charles the Bald expanded the Frank kingdom
and was
crowned Emperor in 875; but it was Louis the German's
son
Charles the Fat who was crowned Emperor in 881.
He abdicated
six years later as the empire
broke into regions governed by feudal
nobles and bishops.
Anglo-Saxons struggled for power in Britain.
Warrior king Penda
ruled Mercia (633-55),
defeating and killing both Edwin (r. 616-33)
and Oswald (r. 634-42) of Northumbria.
Wessex king Cynegils (r.
611-42) became a Christian in 635.
Bishops met at Hertford in
672 and accepted Roman canon laws.
Picts attacked Northumbria
from the north.
Mercia king Aethelbald (r. 716-57) subjected all
the provinces
south of the Humber by 730 and called himself King
of Britannia;
but he was murdered, and his successor
Offa (r.
757-96) fought his neighbors.
Viking raids began in 789.
Offa
made a commercial treaty with Charlemagne in 796.
Wessex king
Ecgberht (r. 802-39)
conquered Cornwall in 809 and Mercia in 829.
Danes began raiding in 835, and a large Danish army
invaded East
Anglia in 865.
Young Alfred became king in 871
and defeated the
Danes seven years later.
The English continued to fight the Danes
for several years
as Danelaw governed in the east.
Welsh bishop
Asser wrote a biography of Alfred in 893.
Alfred promoted literacy
and translation of books into English.
Alfred unified much of
England by revising the laws of
Ine of Wessex, Offa of Mercia,
and Aethelberht of Kent.
The Old English epic Beowulf depicted warriors
in Scandinavia, warning that punishment will follow
wrong-doing after death if
not in life.
Irish myths and sagas of this era are also violent
and depict cattle raids.
Only Druids could calm down Cu Chulaind.
Ireland had been Christian since Patrick's mission
in the 5th
century, but local kings struggled for power;
even monasteries
fought each other between 760 and 824.
Viking raids began in 795,
and the Norse
ruled Dublin from 851 until 902.
John Scotus Erigena came from Ireland to the court
of Charles the Bald about 845.
He translated Christian works from Greek into Latin
and synthesized
Greek philosophy with Christian theology
in his On the Division
of Nature.
His mystical panentheist theology was cited
by
Cathar heretics, and the book was burned in 1210.
John Scotus
showed how vices can be transformed
into virtues by divine grace.
Adventurous Vikings raided from ships, and before 900
Norway's
king Harald Fairhair claimed
Shetland and the Orkney islands.
Rolf (Rollo) settled in Normandy, was recognized as duke
by Frank
king Charles the Simple in 911, and was baptized.
Swedes invaded
Denmark about 900 and ruled it until 936.
Haakon was brought up
by England's king Athelstan as a
Christian and forced Erik Bloodaxe
out of Norway.
Haakon was called the Good and formulated laws.
Haakon urged his subjects to practice Christianity;
but he was
resisted and was killed
during a Danish invasion about 961.
Dane king Harald Bluetooth became a Christian
but was overthrown by
his son Svein Forkbeard.
Svein attacked Norway and the Swedes
occupying Denmark.
Norway's Olaf Tryggvason joined Svein Forkbeard
in an attack on London in 994.
Olaf accepted silver and became
a Christian.
Olaf was elected king of Norway and spread Christianity
by force, but he died in a sea battle
against Denmark and Sweden
in 1000.
Iceland had law for four regions by 965
and became Christian
in the year 1000.
Greenland had been named by Erik the Red, and
about 1000
Erik's son Leif explored Vinland (North America).
Svein
Forkbeard continued to attack England
and collected large amounts
of silver.
Danish king Knut ruled England from 1016 to 1035
and
attacked Norway in 1028.
Norway's king Magnus was called the Good
for establishing
the most progressive laws in Europe.
Magnus also
ruled Denmark before he died in 1047.
Viking violence declined
in the late 11th century as the
royal armies enforced law, and
fewer captives reduced slavery.
The story of Denmark's king Knut
IV (r. 1074-86) is told
in the Knytlinga Saga.
About 1075
Adam of Bremen described the customs
of Denmark, Sweden, and Norway.
The three social classes were the aristocrats,
free peasant farmers
and warriors, and the thralls or serfs.
Killing a thrall was not
a major crime.
Wise counsel was given in the
"Sayings of
the High One" (Havamal).
Edward (r 899-924) fought the Danes and expanded
his English
kingdom to the Humber River.
Athelstan (r. 924-39) invaded Scotland.
Edmund (r. 939-46) revised the laws so that
a murderer's kinsmen
would not be killed.
King Edgar (r. 957-75) kept the peace
and
built more than forty monasteries.
In 990 England began paying
large amounts of silver
to placate Viking raiders, but the fighting
continued.
In 1016 the Dane Knut became king of all England.
After
Knut died in 1035, there was a struggle
because his son Hordaknut
was in Denmark.
In 1042 Danish rule in England ended
as Edward
was elected king.
The Frank empire had disintegrated into feudal government
by
local nobles, whose power and land was hereditary.
The Church
also held much land,
but many bishops were part of the feudal
system.
In 910 the monastery at Cluny was founded,
and it promoted many reforms such as celibacy
for clergy while rejecting simony
and secular control.
Frank king Lothair (r. 954-86) survived an
invasion
by German emperor Otto II in 978.
Hugh Capet became king
in 987, and the Peace of God
was declared by a church council
two years later.
Hugh's son Robert II (r. 996-1031) ruled France
and invaded Burgundy, finally conquering it in 1015.
Robert made
peace with Germany's Heinrich II, and in
1027 the Truce of God
was proclaimed, restricting
the days on which military attacks
were allowed.
Robert's son Henri I (r. 1031-60) refused
to obey the Truce of God, and his brother,
Burgundy duke Robert I (r.
1032-76),
even pillaged his own vassals and the Church.
Philip
I became king of France at the age of eight in 1060,
and he was
excommunicated in 1094 for bigamy.
In the 11th century Christians
in northern Spain
won many victories against the Muslims;
but
they also fought each other,
as in the war of the three Sanchos
in 1067.
Leon's Alfonso VI (r. 1065-1109)
took over Castile in
1072.
He gave Jews civil equality with Christians.
After Christians
took over Toledo in 1085,
Almoravids from North Africa occupied
eastern Spain.
Germans also developed feudal relationships to protect
themselves
from incursions by the Magyars.
The Saxon Heinrich (r. 919-36)
ruled Germany,
defeated the Magyars, and was succeeded by his
son Otto.
As king Otto was served by vassals in Lotharingia,
Franconia, Swabia, and Bavaria.
Otto nominated bishops and had to put down
revolts in
Bavaria, Franconia, and Lotharingia.
Magyars were defeated
again
and gradually became Hungarian Christians.
Otto's army fought
several civil wars, conquered Bohemia,
and defeated Obodrites
and Wends.
Otto was crowned Emperor at Rome in 962
and spent the
next decade in Italy.
His son Otto II (r. 973-83) was Emperor
of Germany and Italy,
and his reign was preoccupied with wars.
Otto III was only three years old, but his mother
and grandmother
as regents prevented civil war.
By the time Duke Mieszko died
in 992 Poland had expanded
and gained religious independence from
Germany
by submitting to the Pope.
Geza (r. 970-97) was succeeded
as King of Hungary
by his son Stephen (r. 997-1038), who promoted
Christianity.
Duke Heinrich of Bavaria refrained from rebelling
against Otto III, who died in 1002.
Literature began to emerge;
but the strife in poems
reflected the feudal rivalries and violence.
The nun Hrotsvitha wrote moral Christian plays
based on Roman
models, but they were not performed.
In 882 Oleg united Russian tribes in Kiev,
and his son Igor
(r. 913-45) attacked Constantinople in 941;
Igor's ruling widow
Olga became a Christian in 957.
Sviatoslav (r. 962-72) allied
with the Byzantines
for an attack on the Bulgarian kingdom in
968.
Vladimir won a succession struggle about 980
and ruled until
1015.
Vladimir married a Byzantine princess and became
a Christian
in 988 as thousands were baptized.
Yaroslav (r. 1019-54) won a
civil war and gained some
peace for Russia after defeating the
Pechenegs in 1037.
His many sons struggled with divided rule until
his grandson
Vladimir Monomakh got the princes
to agree on unity
in 1097.
In the 10th century most of the Popes were pawns
in the Italian
politics of kings of Italy, German emperors,
and others who were
able to grab power temporarily.
Berengar as king of Italy (r.
898-924)
had King Louis of Provence blinded.
Intriguing Marozia
had her power taken by her
son Alberic II, who governed Rome from
932 to 954.
The three German Ottos used imperial troops
to control
much of Italy.
Heinrich II was made King of the Lombards in 1004
and was crowned Emperor ten years later.
Traveling Normans came
to help fight
Saracens in Apulia and Sicily.
German king Conrad
decreed feudal law at Pavia in 1037,
defining the rights and obligations
of vassals.
Venice developed its commerce and built a powerful
navy,
serving as bridge and arbiter between
the Byzantine and
Western empires.
Three families ruled Venice until
Domenico Flabanico
(r. 1032-43)
gave power to the assembly.
German king Heinrich II (r. 1002-24) invaded Bohemia and
Burgundy,
and he extended more secular power to bishops.
The army of Conrad
II (r. 1024-39) ravaged Italy.
Heinrich III (r. 1039-56) invaded
Bohemia and Hungary,
and he helped Casimir (r. 1039-58) restore
Poland.
Agnes ruled Germany as regent
for her six-year-old son
Heinrich IV.
As archbishops were taking control,
Heinrich IV was
declared of age in 1065.
He found himself at war with the Saxons
and was
excommunicated in 1076 by Pope Gregory VII
over his privilege
of investiture.
Faced with losing his kingdom, Heinrich repented;
but Swabia was devastated by civil war.
Heinrich IV invaded Italy
in 1081 and was crowned
Emperor by alternative Pope Clement III.
By 1088 peace had been achieved, and German bishops
accepted Pope
Urban II while
disregarding Heinrich's excommunication.
In 1095
Heinrich IV protected the rights of Jews with a decree.
In Italy the ascetic monk Peter Damian systematized
self-flagellation
and led the movement for the Cluny reforms to
eliminate concubinage,
simony, and the use of arms by clerics.
In 1059 a Lateran council
of 113 bishops established
the electoral power of the cardinal
bishops,
but none from Germany had attended.
When Pope Alexander
II was elected in 1061,
Heinrich IV as Patrician invested Pope
Honorius II.
Normans drove the Byzantines out of Italy in 1071
by defeating their fleet.
Alexander's advisor Hildebrand
became
Pope Gregory VII in 1073.
He enforced clerical celibacy by deposing
priests,
though a Paris synod rejected his decrees.
Gregory VII
asserted his papal authority over bishops
and even emperors, declaring
that no one could retract his
sentences nor judge him and that
the Church had never erred.
In 1076 Heinrich IV got a council
at Worms to depose
Gregory for treason and witchcraft.
The Pope
then excommunicated and deposed Heinrich,
and Germans induced
him to humble himself in penitence.
Eventually a civil war broke
out
between rival Popes and rival German kings.
Gregory was reconciled
with the Norman Guiscard,
whose forces drove Heinrich IV out of
Rome in 1084;
but both Gregory and Guiscard died the next year.
Pope Urban II allied himself with the Welfs of Bavaria,
and a
long struggle began between the
papal Guelfs and the imperialist
Ghibellines.
England's king Edward (r. 1042-66) the Confessor
had been raised
by Norman clergy in monasteries
and encouraged Norman influence.
Harold helped defeat Welsh incursions
and became king of England
in 1066.
That year Norway's king Harald with 300 ships
invaded
Yorkshire, but Harold's English army
defeated them at Stamford
Bridge.
Three days later William's Normans
invaded England in
about 500 ships.
King Harold led his army of about 7,000;
but
at Hastings they were defeated, and he was killed.
William was
anointed King of England
by the Archbishop of York.
William imposed
heavy taxes and crushed any resistance
as women fled into monasteries
to avoid being raped.
Danes and Norwegians invaded to support
English resistance;
but in 1070 they made a treaty with William
and left.
Scots raided, but two years later
King Malcolm became
William's vassal.
Most English institutions continued as the Norman
warriors dominated the landed aristocracy.
A decree prohibited
peasants from hunting in the royal forest.
The famous Domesday
Survey assessed estates,
and landowners had to swear fealty to
the king.
In 1087 William died in France and passed
the throne
of England to his son William Rufus.
He suppressed a rebellion
and increased taxes.
He resolved a conflict with his brother,
Duke Robert of Normandy,
and they defeated and divided the Normandy
lands
of their younger brother Heinrich in 1091.
William II also
fought battles against the Scots and Welsh,
and he put down a
Northumbrian tax revolt.
In 1095 Pope Urban II answered a call for help from the
Byzantines
by proclaiming a crusade to take Jerusalem back
from the Muslims
and offering absolution of sins.
As the crusaders passed through
Hungary led by
Walter Sans-Avoir and Peter the Hermit,
increasing
difficulties caused violence and many deaths.
In Germany crusaders
robbed and killed Jews.
Crusaders stopped at Constantinople, and
then about 17,000
were killed in an ambush by Turks near Nicaea;
Emperor Alexius sent warships to rescue besieged survivors.
Hugh
of Vermandois, Raymond of Toulouse,
and most crusader leaders
swore allegiance to Alexius.
Modern scholars estimate the total
number of crusaders
at about 7,000 knights and 60,000 infantry.
Baldwin invaded Armenia and became count of Edessa.
Most crusaders
besieged Antioch and suffered starvation;
when the city was taken
in 1098, all its Turks were massacred.
As the crusaders left the
Norman Bohemond behind
to rule Antioch, the Egyptian Fatimids
invaded Palestine
and took over Jerusalem; they offered Christian
pilgrims
access to holy places, but the crusaders rejected this.
In 1099 1300 knights and 12,000 crusading soldiers
attacked Jerusalem,
and nearly 40,000 people
were massacred, including women and children.
Godfrey of Lorraine was elected and called himself
Defender of
the Holy Sepulcher; he distributed estates
to knights, and Italian
ships began trading.
Godfrey died in 1100, and Baldwin became king of Jerusalem.
Bohemond's army was annihilated, and he was captured.
More crusaders
came, and under Raymond of Toulouse
they tried to free Bohemond;
but most of their large army
of perhaps 100,000 were killed by
the
Danishmends and Kilij Arslan's Seljuks.
Two other crusading
armies were also
slaughtered by a large Turkish army.
Edessa count Baldwin II and Patriarch Bernard paid
100,000 bezants to
get Bohemond released.
He and King Baldwin fought each other,
and crusaders fought Byzantines.
Bohemond went to Apulia and France
to raise
34,000 crusaders against the Byzantines but was defeated
by their navy at Dyrrhachium in 1107.
Persian sultan Berkyaruk
launched a counter crusade in 1110,
and the Muslim army recaptured
Edessa
but could not take Antioch.
John Comnenus (r. 1118-43)
succeeded his father Alexius
as Emperor in Constantinople and
went on
fighting the Turks in Asia Minor.
As crusaders and Muslims
continued to fight, a new order
of Templars was authorized by
Pope Honorius II in 1128
to add to the previously ordained military
order
known as the Hospitallers of St. John.
After a struggle for power among the Muslims,
Zengi emerged
to conquer Christian cities,
killing and enslaving Franks when
Edessa was taken in 1144.
Zengi was murdered two years later,
but his son Nur-ad-Din ruled Aleppo and won many victories.
John's
son Manuel (r. 1143-80) used the Byzantine army
to keep Raymond
of Antioch out of Cilicia.
After Joscelin regained Edessa, Nur-ad-Din's
forces
again slaughtered and enslaved Franks in retaking it.
This
stimulated the second crusade that
was proclaimed by Pope Eugenius
in 1145.
France's Louis VII took up the cause
and sent Bernard
of Clairvaux out preaching.
Again Jews were massacred in Germany,
though Bernard
went there to try to redirect the energy to converting
Slavs.
Emperor Conrad led a large army through Hungary,
but most
of them were slaughtered by Seljuk Turks.
Roger's Normans plundered
Greek cities.
Louis foolishly attacked Damascus, which had been
the Franks ally, but Conrad persuaded him to withdraw.
As he returned
to Europe, Louis in Sicilian ships was
attacked by Byzantines
and blamed Manuel;
but Conrad would not support a crusade
against
his friend Manuel.
Nur-ad-Din's forces defeated and killed
Raymond
of Antioch in 1149.
Nur-ad-Din was known for dispensing justice
at Aleppo and Damascus, and he founded colleges,
convents, and
a hospital.
When Emperor Manuel and Jerusalem king Baldwin III
made an alliance, Nur-ad-Din returned 6,000 captives.
Jerusalem king Amalric (r. 1163-74) invaded Egypt twice;
but
in 1169 Nur-ad-Din's friend Saladin gained control
of Egypt and
made trade agreements
with Pisans, Genoese, and Venetians.
King
Amalric made a treaty with the Byzantine emperor
in 1170; but
the next year Manuel ordered Venetians arrested.
In 1176 Manuel
fled from Turks and suffered a disastrous
loss of territory in
Asia Minor as the Byzantine empire
deteriorated under rule by
a military class.
In 1182 the army revolted against the Latin
empress
Maria
and slaughtered Italian merchants.
Raid of a Muslim caravan by Reginald stimulated
Egyptian sultan
Saladin to capture 1500 pilgrims.
Saladin took Aleppo in 1183
and resided at Damascus,
but he used diplomacy to make agreements
with
Bohemond III of Antioch, the Seljuk sultan, and the Byzantines.
Reginald raided another caravan, and in 1187 Saladin defeated
the Frank army and then captured
many cities in Palestine including
Jerusalem.
This news caused European Christians to stop their
wars
and launch the third crusade led by Germany's Friedrich,
England's Richard, and France's Philip.
Friedrich died near Seleucia.
Richard stopped in Sicily to protect his sister Joan's dowry
and
then took Cyprus by force from Isaac Comnenus.
In 1191 Richard
and Philip relieved the 100,000 crusaders
trapped by Saladin's
army while besieging Acre.
A dispute caused Philip to go home.
Richard sold Cyprus and the next year made a truce
with Saladin,
agreeing to let Christians and Muslims
have access to holy places.
While returning Richard was captured in Austria and was
not ransomed
until 1194.
Saladin had died in 1193, and his sons struggled for
power.
Pope Innocent III urged a fourth crusade
that was aimed at
Cairo.
Venetians offered transportation for money;
when the payment
was short, they got the crusaders to help
them retake Zara from
the Hungarians in 1202.
Exiled Alexius sent word he would pay
Venice
for putting him on the Byzantine throne.
The crusaders
conquered Constantinople in 1203.
The Latins were resented, and
the next year the Franks and
Venetians plundered the city and
elected Count Baldwin IX
of Flanders and Hainault Latin emperor.
The Byzantine empire was divided up.
Eventually crusaders invaded
Egypt in 1218.
Friedrich II finally went on crusade in 1229 and
made a
peace treaty, giving Muslims access to Jerusalem;
but civil
war broke out in Palestine and Cypress.
Egyptian ruler Aiyub hired
a Khorezmian army of 10,000
and sacked Jerusalem in 1244.
The
Khorezmians turned against Aiyub and besieged him
at Damascus;
but they were defeated by the Egyptians.
France's Louis IX supported
and led a crusade
that captured Damietta in Egypt in 1249.
After
famine and disease, the crusading army was captured,
and Louis
was ransomed for the
enormous amount of 800,000 bezants.
Germany's Heinrich IV was overthrown by his son,
who became
Heinrich V shortly before his father died in 1106.
Heinrich V
gained a rich dowry by marrying England's
Norman princess Matilda,
enabling him
to invade Italy and become Emperor.
His disrespect
for Pope Paschal, taxes, mistreatment of nobles,
and failed military
campaigns in Poland and Hungary
alienated many, and a revolt in
Germany
defeated his imperial army in 1115.
Heinrich V went to
Italy again to claim lands of the late
Countess Matilda of Tuscany
and replaced the Pope.
In 1122 the Diet at Worms finally settled
the
investiture controversy with a compromise.
Heinrich's attempted
invasion of France with England
in 1124 failed, and he died the
next year.
The Hohenstaufens made Conrad king in 1127 to challenge
Lothar III, and civil war dragged on until 1135.
Lothar died two
years later returning from an attack
on the Normans in Italy.
Conrad became king, and civil wars erupted again.
These with famines,
epidemics, and a second crusade
led to anti-Jewish pogroms in
1146.
Conrad survived the crusade,
made a treaty with Welf VI,
and died in 1152.
Emperor Friedrich Barbarossa (r. 1152-90) tried to
bring justice through law by prohibiting private feuds.
Bishop Otto of Freising
wrote a
history of Friedrich's early reign, and in his Two
Cities
he noted that the contemporary church was a mixture
of good and evil, not as good as the
early church but more fortunate
in its power.
Friedrich intervened in the election of bishops
to appoint capable administrators for his empire.
He proclaimed
strict enforcement of feudal law in Germany
and Italy, and he
endowed universities to train lawyers.
Heinrich the Lion ruled
northeast Germany and helped
the Danes conquer the Wends beyond
the Elbe.
As Italian cities developed more independence with
communes, the Normans under Roger II expanded
their Sicilian empire in Greece
and Africa.
In 1154 Pope Adrian IV banished the
radical Arnold
of Brescia from Rome.
Germany's new king Friedrich Barbarossa
invaded Italy
the next year, and as Emperor he conquered Milan
in 1158,
promising feudal rights; but he had Milan
destroyed in
1162 for resisting taxes.
Friedrich invaded Italy again in 1167,
and even Venice
joined the Greater Lombard League;
but the Lombards
did not defeat the German imperial
army until 1176, forcing Friedrich
at Venice
to make a treaty with Pope Alexander III.
Alexander
presided over the Third Lateran Council that
tried to reform abuses
and prevent anti-popes in 1179.
When Friedrich died on crusade
in 1190, his son
Heinrich VI already had much experience governing.
Heinrich renewed a treaty with Pisa in 1191, and he
used the ransom
he got for releasing England's Richard
to finance his campaign
to conquer Sicily in 1194;
but his harsh rule caused rebellions,
and Heinrich VI died in 1197.
Pope Innocent III (1198-1216) used a struggle
for power in Germany to regain papal privileges.
Italian cities in the Tuscan League were often
ruled by foreign podestas elected annually.
After Friedrich II promised not to interfere in
ecclesiastical affairs, the fourth Lateran Council of 1215
confirmed him as Emperor.
Innocent urged yet another crusade, and the council
confirmed the Inquisition against the Cathar heretics.
Gratian’s codification of church election laws was accepted.
Clerics were given a dress code,
and Jews were forbidden to hold civil offices.
Italian cities were dividing between Guelfs supporting
the Pope and Ghibellines favoring the Emperor.
The Teutonic Order was formed to conquer Prussia.
Friedrich II founded a university at
Naples in 1224 for the study of law.
Many Italian cities and communes
joined the Lombard League.
Returning from the crusade,
Friedrich invaded the papal states;
Pope Gregory IX (1227-41) reacted by
sending an army to attack the Sicilian kingdom.
In 1231 Friedrich tried to replace feudal customs
by imposing imperial laws that attempted to prevent
crime by protecting the weak from the strong.
Widows and orphans were subsidized.
Fairs were established, and customs
were reduced to promote trade.
Friedrich’s imperial army, using 10,000 Saracens,
defeated the Lombard League at Cortenuova in 1237.
Friedrich taxed papal territories,
and his war against Gregory IX was resumed
by Pope Innocent IV (1243-54).
The imperial treasure was captured in 1248,
but the war did not end until Friedrich died in 1250.
Denmark fought with the Wends and Abodrites,
and King Valdemar (r. 1157-82) converted the
Wends to Christianity by force of arms.
Norway’s king Magnus III (r. 1093-1103) was dislike
for the heavy taxes used to pay for his wars.
After 1130 Norway suffered
frequent civil wars over the throne.
English cardinal Nicholas Breakspear visited Norway
as papal legate in 1152, established an archbishopric
at Nidaros (Trondheim), and instituted reforms.
After a civil war King Sverrir (r. 1184-1202)
quelled rebellions, repudiated the religious reforms,
and was excommunicated.
Sweden also suffered civil wars as the church developed.
Svealand king Erik Jedvardsson promulgated strict laws,
and his son Knut (r. 1167-96) became king of Sweden,
organized the church, and fortified Stockholm.
Iceland initiated tithing to support the church in 1097
and revised its democratic laws in 1118.
Guilds developed in Scandinavia as in Europe and
were important economic and social institutions.
Clerical celibacy was resisted in the 12th century,
especially by the Scandinavians.
Denmark’s Valdemar II (r. 1202-41)
expanded the kingdom and developed a law code.
Abuses by Hungarian king Andrew II (r. 1205-35) led in
1221 to the national charter of rights called the Golden Bull.
In 1239 the Mongol invasion pushed 40,000 Kumans
into the Hungary of Bela IV (r. 1235-70), who found it
useful to protect Jews and cede territory to Austria.
Many Germans immigrated into Bohemia during the
reign of Wenceslas (r. 1230-53) with their sense of law.
Poland had suffered from German aggression, Lithuanians,
and raids from Mongols in 1241 and 1259.
Mongols destroyed Kiev in 1240 and
dominated much of Russia for two centuries.
Alexander helped Novgorod defeat invading Swedes in 1240,
and two years later they turned away Teutonic knights.
Hungary was ruled by King Coloman (r. 1095-1116)
and his relatives, some of whom were blinded.
Bela III (r. 1173-96) married Margaret of France,
and Magyar students attended the university in Paris.
The Premyslid dynasty dominated Bohemia,
and Duke Vladislav I became a German elector.
Duke Vladislav II (r. 1140-73) supported Emperor
Friedrich Barbarossa’s campaign against Milan in 1158
and was crowned king; but after he abdicated,
civil wars divided Bohemia.
Poland’s Boleslaw III (r. 1102-38) did homage to the
German Emperor; but his sons fought civil wars.
Vladimir Monomakh became prince of Kiev in 1113
and made war against his neighbors;
he reduced interest rates and expelled Jews.
Many struggled for power until Vsévolod III (r. 1176-1212)
became Russia’s Grand Prince.
The anonymous Lay of Igor’s Campaign
blamed Igor’s defeat by the Kumans in 1185
on the Russian princes’ quarrels.
France's Louis VI (r. 1108-37) suppressed a commune
at Laon
in 1113, but others sprang up.
He used a large army to fend off
Germany and England in 1124.
Flanders count Charles (r. 1119-27)
protected the weak
and farmers, and he outlawed bearing arms in
markets
or towns; but he was murdered in a feud.
Louis VII (r.
1137-80) gained Aquitane
by marrying Eleanor but lost it after
annulment.
When Louis went on crusade in 1147,
Abbot Suger governed
a more peaceful France.
Suger promoted building majestic cathedrals,
arguing they helped people understand the beauty of God.
In 1163
Flanders count Philip of Alsace
declared all in towns free,
and
this principle became part of urban constitutions.
Philip II (r.
1180-1223) seized the wealth of Jews
and canceled Christian debts
to them.
In 1183 a revolution for equality in Puy-en-Velay
was
destroyed by nobles and clergy using mercenaries.
Philip II Augustus (r. 1180-1223) greatly expanded the
kingdom of France and made it a centralized state.
The University of Paris was completely organized by 1215.
Louis VIII (r. 1223-26) stopped the Jews
from collecting debts.
The religious Blanche ruled for her son Louis IX until 1234.
He prohibited vassals from being judged in ecclesiastical
courts for civil questions, and in 1246 a league of
barons limited ecclesiastical courts even more.
Copies of the Talmud were burned in Paris.
Louis IX made truces with England’s Henry III
and spent much treasure on the crusade he led.
When Castilian nobility refused to accept an Aragonese
ruler, Queen Urraca (r. 1109-26) separated
from her husband Alfonso I
(1104-34) of Aragon.
'Ali Ibn Yusuf (r. 1106-43) expanded
his
father's Almoravid empire.
Castile's Alfonso VII (r. 1126-57)
invaded Aragon
and conquered Zaragoza but lost it in 1140.
In
Morocco ibn Tumart was influenced by the
philosopher al-Ghazzali
and founded a unity sect;
the Christians called them Almohads.
Alfonso VII reconquered Muslim Cordoba in 1144;
but two years
later the Almohads invaded Spain,
overthrew the Almoravids in
Andalusia,
and regained Cordoba in 1149.
Portugal's Afonso Henriques
(r. 1128-85) got help
from crusaders in taking Santarém
and Lisbon
from the Muslims in 1147.
While Castile suffered civil
war, Muslims advanced.
Orders of knights were founded,
and the
shrine at Santiago was protected.
The Almohad caliph Ya'qub (r.
1184-99) defeated the army
of Castille's Alfonso VIII (r. 1158-1214)
at Alarcos in 1196.
Anselm was the abbot of the Bec monastery and
wrote to increase
faith in God with philosophical
arguments that God is the greatest
being.
King William Rufus appointed Anselm archbishop
of Canterbury, and they struggled for authority.
William II ruled England and Normandy with a
strong hand but was killed and was succeeded
by
his brother Henry I (r. 1100-35).
In 1106 he defeated Robert Curthose
in Normandy
and continued to suppress civil wars there.
David
(r. 1124-53) brought the feudal system
to Scotland by allocating
land.
Henry's nephew Stephen (r. 1135-54) claimed the throne
and
stopped David's invasion of Cumberland and
Northumberland; civil
war against Henry's daughter
Matilda raged for nine years.
Henry
of Anjou gained much of France by marrying
Eleanor of Aquitane
and succeeded Stephen as king.
Henry II (r. 1154-89) ruled Normandy, Anjou,
and Aquitane as
well as England.
He destroyed unlicensed castles and kept the
peace
by enforcing law, making Thomas Becket his chancellor.
France's
Louis VII kept Henry from taking Toulouse.
When Henry II appointed
his friend Archbishop of Canterbury,
Becket directed his energy
to protecting
the privileges of the church.
Henry wanted the clergy
to be subject
to the authority of secular law courts.
Becket disagreed
and fled to France.
In 1165 Henry II invaded Wales and had hostages
mutilated.
Henry's invasion of Auvergne led to conflict with France.
Henry II married his daughters to Heinrich of Saxony,
Alfonso
VIII of Castile, and William II of Sicily.
Pope Alexander tried
to reconcile Henry II and Becket,
but the latter upon his return
was
murdered in Canterbury cathedral.
Henry invaded Ireland in
1171
before making reparations for the murder.
Two years later
Prince Henry and his brothers Geoffrey
and Richard rebelled and
were supported by Louis VII,
Count Philip of Flanders, King William
of Scotland,
and four English earls.
Henry II was scourged at
Canterbury for the
murder of Becket, already declared a saint.
William was defeated; England submitted;
and Louis made peace.
Henry forgave his sons and made sure they each had land.
Richard
destroyed unlicensed castles,
and John was made feudal lord of
Ireland.
The powerful Henry II mediated truces in Europe.
Yet
Richard and France's young king Philip II
defeated Henry II, who
then died.
Richard (r. 1189-99) sold offices to finance his crusade
and
left his brother John and Ely bishop Longchamp to govern;
but
Rouen archbishop Walter of Coutances
was authorized to replace
Longchamp.
London became a self-governing commune.
When Richard
returned in 1194, he had to defeat
a rebellion that had made John
king.
Then Richard successfully fought Philip
for Normandy and
Aquitane.
The author Gerald tried to make the Welsh church
independent
of Canterbury but did not succeed.
When Richard was killed, John (r. 1199-1216)
became king of
England.
He continued the war against Philip II
and eventually
lost Normandy.
John built up the English navy by requiring military
service.
Stephen Langton remained in exile for six years,
because
John refused to accept him as
Archbishop of Canterbury while seizing
its revenues.
York archbishop Geoffrey opposed the King's tax
and also fled England.
King John was excommunicated in 1209.
Meanwhile
John was using church revenues to finance
his military campaigns
in Scotland, Ireland, and Wales.
Faced with invasion by France,
John reinstated
the exiled clergy and compensated the church.
In 1213 English and Flemish knights destroyed France's navy.
Barons
refused to support John's invasion of Aquitane,
and in 1215 they
demanded a charter of rights as
Archbishop Stephen Langton mediated
a truce.
The Magna Carta became famous
as a breakthrough
in human rights.
The church was guaranteed free elections; feudal
abuses
were reformed; widows were protected; war taxes
could not be imposed without consent;
a permanent court was established for lawsuits;
no one could be put on trial without witnesses;
and the right of trial by a jury of peers was guaranteed.
Pope Innocent III tried to annul the charter with
excommunications; but Archbishop Langton rejected that.
This conflict led to the barons fighting John's
royal army until he died in 1216.
The elderly William Marshal became regent and
worked to resolve the civil war until he died in 1219.
Archbishop Langton helped unify the church and conciliate
the political conflicts until young Henry III came of age.
England's Henry III (r. 1227-72) married the sister
of Louis IX's wife, and so relations
with France were fairly peaceful.
Enforcement of the Great Charter's liberties by threat
of excommunication also added to law and order.
Henry's armies invaded Wales in 1241 and 1245.
Henry III took nearly half the assets of Jews in taxes.
Bishop Grosseteste complained to Pope Innocent IV in 1250
that so much English wealth was going for papal privileges,
and he criticized the use of clerics for secular administration.
Christians in western Europe developed their
ethical theories during the crusades era.
Abelard taught theology at Paris and married
his student Heloise but was castrated by her uncle.
She became a nun; his ethics emphasized intention,
self-knowledge, and traditional virtues.
Abelard was prosecuted for heresy in 1140
by the Cistercian monk Bernard of Clairvaux.
Bernard was the chief advisor to Pope Eugenius and
wrote him five letters on what he should consider,
examining himself and serving others.
Abbot Aelred of Rievaulx is best known for his book
Spiritual Friendship, which is based on moral goodness
and tests loyalty, right intention, discretion, and patience.
John of Salisbury wrote Policraticus on politics
and was Becket’s secretary at Canterbury.
John believed that usurping tyrants should be killed,
and he criticized the venality of courtiers.
He warned against luxury and ambition.
Hildegard of Bingen (1098-1179) was a visionary nun
who prophesied that the temporal powers
would be punished for their greed.
She emphasized feminine virtues and suggested
that not eating mammals helped prevent lust.
Hildegard composed music, chants,
and an operatic morality play.
She wrote on healing using the theory of the four humors,
and she catalogued herbs.
Peter Valdes gave away his wealth to live
in poverty according to the Gospels.
His followers were called Waldensians
and were excommunicated in 1182.
The Cathars, like the Manichaeans, attempted
to purify themselves from evil; they considered
the papacy and priesthood corrupt.
They were declared heretics,
and some were burned as early as 1167.
Their initiated perfecti renounced sexual intercourse,
violence, and animal food in order to be
liberated from reincarnation.
Persecution of Cathars accelerated
after the third Lateran council of 1179.
Yet 600 Cathar perfecti met at Mirepoix in 1206.
Two years later Pope Innocent III proclaimed the
Albigensian crusade against heretics in that region
and offered indulgence for military service.
Thousands were slaughtered at Béziers;
Narbonne submitted, and Carcassonne
was attacked the next year.
Hundreds were burned for heresy in 1210.
The war became the north against the south
as the army of Pedro II’s Aragon supported Toulouse
Louis VIII died leading this crusade in 1226
Many Cathars emigrated to Lombardy
while others held out at Montségur.
In 1233 Pope Gregory IX authorized the
Dominican Order to launch the Inquisition against heretics,
who were denied their rights
and had their property confiscated.
After some inquisitors were murdered,
Montségur was besieged in 1243
and surrendered ten months later.
Dominic was from Castile but gained attention
preaching against
Albigensian heretics.
His preaching converted Waldensians, and
their order of
Poor Catholics was approved by the Pope in 1208.
Dominic's order of poor preachers was confirmed in Rome
in 1217,
and they were called friars (brothers).
By the time Dominic died
in 1221 the friaries
had spread
to Poland, Scandinavia, Palestine,
Spain,
Provence, France, Lombardy, and England.
Francis of Assisi wanted to be a knight and fought in two wars;
but in 1205 a vision guided him to serve God instead.
As a pilgrim to Rome he mingled with beggars and lepers,
and he was inspired to repair a broken-down church in Assisi.
When his wealthy father complained,
Francis gave up all his possessions.
His first disciples joined his begging life
to help the poor in 1208,
and Francis wrote a Rule the next year for the Friars Minor.
Clare organized an order for poor sisters.
In 1219 Francis went on the crusade to Egypt,
preached against killing, and tried to convert the Sultan.
In Palestine he got an eye infection.
The Rule of Francis required brothers to avoid
temporal affairs and accept no money.
The ascetic way of Francis was hard on his body,
which he called Brother Ass, and he suffered many infirmities.
Francis died in 1226,
warning his disciples of coming tribulations.
The spirituals objected to minister general Elias
living in luxury like a prince, and he was deposed in 1239.
Clare's Rule for the Poor Ladies was also approved
by the Pope before she died in 1253.
Robert Grosseteste developed the theory
for the modern experimental method of science.
He taught Roger Bacon, who knew
how to make gun powder as early as 1242.
European literature emerged out of its dark ages
in the 12th
century.
French literature came alive with the epic Song of
Roland,
which was written early during the crusades, probably
as
propaganda for them and the Spanish reconquista effort.
The current hero of the latter was also
immortalized in the epic Poem of the Cid.
Other epics were also written about Charlemagne
and Guillaume, who fought Saracens as well.
Geoffrey of Monmouth wrote in Latin his
History of the Kings of Britain in 1136
and was the first to develop the legends of King Arthur.
His literary
efforts gave the British a national tradition
even if it was mostly
legendary.
Welsh tales were eventually collected in the Mabinogion,
and they included magical fantasies.
The troubadours sang bawdy songs before audiences,
but their
poems and songs developed
into the tradition of courtly love.
Commentaries (razos) and political poems (sirventes)
often criticized current customs.
Some romances were based on
classical models.
The court chaplain Andreas Capellanus in his
book
On Love (De Amore) wrote about the theory of
romantic love.
He described how heterosexual love can be won by
beauty,
honest character, wisdom and eloquent speech, wealth,
and granting what the other wants.
In dialogs men of different
classes
try to persuade women to love them.
In the third book,
however, Andreas strongly argued that
sensual love is far inferior
to the love of God.
Marie de France wrote romantic stories in
French verse
called Lais, which contain moral lessons.
The fabliaux tales were often more sexual, scatological,
and violent; the most popular of these were of
Reynard the fox
and other animals struggling to survive.
Between 1170 and 1190 Chrétien de Troyes wrote
five
Arthurian romances in French
with rhymed octosyllabic couplets.
Erec and Enide explores the tension between the deep
feelings of love in marriage and a knight's duties of chivalry.
In Cliges
a Byzantine prince is educated at the court of Arthur,
falls in
love, and is able to take the woman away
from the Duke of Saxony.
In The Knight of the Cart Lancelot falls in love
with Queen
Guinevere.
The Knight with the Lion is about Yvain of Arthur's
court.
He falls in love with the widow Laudine,
but he is so preoccupied with chivalrous heroics that
he forgets to come back to her as
he promised.
Chrétien left The Story of the Grail
about Perceval unfinished.
Perceval is also distracted from his
spiritual aspiration
by chivalrous combats.
This knight's quest
for the grail
was continued by several other poets.
The anonymous German epic Nibelungenlied tells the
violent story of Siegfried and how his widow
Kriemhild got revenge for
his murder.
Wolfram von Eschenbach was a knight and wrote
the
long poem Parzival about his quest for the grail.
Parzival
is so eager to fight that he jousts with Gawan and
battles his
own brother Feirefiz before he learns who they are.
Parzival learns
the chivalry of a knight
and becomes the grail king.
In his epic
poem Willehalm Wolfram celebrated the warfare
of chivalry
by retelling the story of Charlemagne's cousin
Guillaume, who
was defeated by the Muslims at Alischanz
but then organized a
campaign that was victorious.
The satire Meier Helmbrecht
by Wernher der Gartenaere
shows how the crimes of errant knights
were starting to be punished by the force of law.
Several versions of the romance of Tristan and Isolde survived,
but none of them is complete.
The longest and most profound is
the poem Tristan
in German by Gottfried von Strassburg.
In this story the power of passionate love is symbolized
as a
drug that causes Tristan and Isolde to fall in
desperate love
even though she marries King Mark.
The long French prose Lancelot
is an analogous story
of the illicit love for a queen.
Lancelot's
story is continued in the religious allegory
The Quest of the
Holy Grail that tells of his son Galahad,
whose purity is
contrasted to the sin of his father.
Other knights are also too
sinful, but Galahad is joined
on his quest by Bors and Perceval.
In The Death of Arthur Lancelot resumes his love affair
with Queen Guinevere, eventually
causing a civil war in Arthur's
kingdom.
Arthur is betrayed by his own son Mordred,
and they kill
each other.
The noble ideals of Camelot could not withstand
the
vices and violence of the knights.
Snorri Sturluson (1178-1241) was born in Iceland
and was its
law-speaker for twelve years.
He became the richest man in Iceland
but made enemies
and was eventually murdered.
Snorri wrote about
Norse myths in the Prose Edda
and Norwegian legends and
history in his Heimskringla.
The pagan myths claim to be
from Asia and are rather violent
with gods in conflict and sometimes
betraying each other.
Snorri Sturluson also wrote Egil's Saga
about his poetic ancestor Egil Skallagrimsson.
The Icelandic sagas
are essentially historical novels about
Norse families in the
10th and 11th centuries.
Egil kills many men but manages to claim
much property.
The anonymous Laxdaela Saga portrays a family
feud
and shows women exerting much influence.
The Eyrbyggja
Saga depicts the struggle between the Viking
feuds and the
development of law and democracy in Iceland
as Christianity gradually
replaced blood feuds.
Njal's Saga is about a skillful lawyer
who tries to reduce
violence with lawsuits and compensation for
murders;
he accepts Christianity but ends up being burned in his
home.
Theater was reborn in the West in the 12th century
as an outgrowth of religious liturgies.
Biblical plays and lives of saints were presented on holy days.
Comedy burst forth in plays about Saint Nicholas.
Though it was still called the Roman empire, even before
the empire was revived by Heraclius (r. 610-41),
it was really more
Byzantine than Roman.
The Byzantines frequently had to fight Muslim
invaders;
but unlike the Persian empire that was completely defeated,
they survived.
A controversy over whether images should be worshipped
as icons caused conflict from the time
of Emperor Leo III (r.
717-41) until 843.
John of Damascus defended icons and applied
Aristotle's philosophy to Christian theology.
Bulgarians fought
to have an independent empire and church.
The Eastern Orthodox
church gradually drew away from
the Roman Catholic authority of
the Pope,
and the inability to resolve their differences kept
them apart.
Byzantine laws were completely revised under
Emperor
Leo VI (r. 886-912).
The Emperor gained power along with an aristocracy
of feudal lords over serfs, and guilds developed.
The scholarly
Constantine VII (r. 945-59)
restored land to the peasants.
Bulgaria
was conquered and annexed to the Byzantine
empire by John Tzimisces
(r. 969-976).
Basil II (r. 976-1025) invaded Macedonia and conquered
the Balkans; but after him the Byzantine empire shrunk
and suffered
a major defeat by Muslim Turks in 1071.
Alexius Comnenus (r. 1081-1118)
became Emperor
and appealed to the west for help,
resulting in
an invasion as much as an alliance.
Writings by Isidore of Seville provided some learning
during
Europe's darker ages.
Charlemagne used military force to create
a large
Frank empire, and he encouraged some education
with the
writings of his advisor Alcuin.
In the 9th century many battles
caused the Frank
empire to be divided into France, Germany,
and
other smaller kingdoms.
The Catholic church under the Pope in
Rome exerted
authority and even political power through its hierarchy,
while its monasteries kept learning alive in Latin.
The Anglo-Saxon
struggle for power in Britain gradually
developed laws, some of
which came from the Danish
conquest in the eastern part of the
island.
King Alfred (r. 871-99) united much of England under
his
rule and encouraged literacy in English as well as Latin.
The
violent stories of the Old English epic Beowulf
and of
the Irish myths and sagas
were the beginnings of a native literature.
Two centuries passed between Isidore and John Scotus Erigena,
who wrote the philosophical On the Division of Nature.
Viking raiding turned to conquest in 911 when Rolf's Normans
settled in what came to be called Normandy.
Haakon benefited Norway
by formulating laws and
urging his subjects to practice Christianity
until he was killed during a Danish invasion about 961.
Olaf Tryggvason
spread Christianity in Norway by force
at the end of the millennium,
and it was adopted by Iceland,
which already had democratic government.
Scandinavia had laws to differentiate its three social classes.
England developed its laws under kings Edmund (r. 939-46)
and
Edgar (r. 957-75) but had to fight off Danish invaders.
As the
Frank empire disintegrated in the 10th century,
local nobles ruled
according to the feudal hierarchy.
The monastery at Cluny promoted
reforms
and exerted spiritual discipline.
Church councils tried
to limit the fighting of knights
by proclaiming the Peace of God
in 989
and the Truce of God in 1027.
In the late 11th century
Christian warriors
in Spain fought Muslims.
Germans also used feudal loyalties to thwart Magyar
invasions and fight each other for power.
The Saxon Heinrich (r. 919-36)
defeated the Magyars.
His son Otto I (r. 936-73) was king of Germany
and ruled
Italy also as emperor as did Otto II and Otto III.
More
Hungarians converted as Stephen (r. 997-1038)
promoted Christianity.
Russians accepted Christianity
when Vladimir converted in 988.
Political intrigues in Rome corrupted
most of the Popes in the
10th century.
Under German kings Heinrich II (r. 1002-24),
Conrad
II (r. 1024-39), and Heinrich III (r. 1039-56)
bishops gained
more secular power,
and German troops invaded Bohemia, Burgundy,
and Hungary.
Heinrich IV quarreled with Pope Gregory VII over
investiture,
faced civil war, and invaded Italy in 1081.
The conflict
between German imperialism and
Papal authority would divide Italy
for generations.
After being ruled by Dane king Knut, England
gained
calm under Edward the Confessor (r. 1042-66);
but then
they were conquered by William's Normans,
who became the governing
aristocrats
along with surviving barons.
The crusades began dramatically in 1095 with an appeal by
Pope
Urban II, and Byzantine emperor Alexius managed
to get most of
its leaders to swear loyalty to him.
This colossal but misguided
adventure resulted in
extensive violence for nearly two centuries.
Thousands were massacred when Jerusalem was taken
in 1099 as the
Franks and their Christian allies
founded a kingdom in Palestine.
Muslims reacted by launching a counter-crusade
in 1110 and recaptured
Edessa.
Byzantine John Comnenus (r. 1118-43) fought the Turks
in Asia Minor to maintain his empire.
After Nur-ad-Din's forces
recaptured Edessa a second time,
Pope Eugenius proclaimed the
second crusade in 1145.
Once again Jews were slaughtered in Germany
during
preparations, and violence increased in the east.
Crusader
attempts to invade Egypt resulted in the rise
of Saladin, whose
forces captured many cities in Palestine.
In the third crusade
led by kings,
Richard won little back in 1191.
One of the effects
of the crusades was to remove
many warriors from Europe,
which
often enjoyed more peace as a result.
The fourth crusade went
awry with the Venetian navy
and conquered Constantinople in 1203,
breaking up the Byzantine empire.
Crusades against Egypt in 1218
and 1249
were miserable failures.
Attempts to make invading Mongols
allies against
the Muslims failed as most Mongols joined Islam.
Public sentiment in Europe finally turned against
the disastrous crusades, and the last of the
crusaders were pushed out of Palestine
in 1291.
Civil wars disturbed powerful Germany
in the first half of
the 12th century.
However, Friedrich I (r. 1152-90) used law to
prevent feuds
in Germany and imposed new laws on Italy
with his
imperial army, battling the Lombard League.
His son Heinrich VI
made peace with the Lombards
but extended German imperial rule
all the way to Sicily in 1194.
Cities gained some independence
by forming communes.
Flanders count Charles (r. 1119-27)
made
good reforms but was murdered.
The authority of the church in
France was demonstrated
by the awe-inspiring cathedrals people
built,
and they were imitated throughout Europe.
Yet one might
ask whether people living in poor houses
were building such monumental
structures for worship
or to aggrandize the clergy.
Philip II
(r. 1180-1223) seized the wealth of Jews,
and a revolution for
equality in Puy-en-Velay,
like the radical policies of Arnold
of Brescia,
was put down by prelates as well as
nobles using mercenaries.
Nobles in Spain struggled for power
and sometimes fought Muslims.
Scandinavians suffered civil wars, spread Christianity
on its
frontiers by force,
and refused to accept clerical celibacy.
Conflicts
also plagued eastern Europe and Russia.
Urbanization increased
guilds throughout Europe.
England had strong kings who enforced
law,
but conflicting ambitions caused a civil war
during the reign
of Stephen (r. 1135-54).
Henry II (r. 1154-89) was a powerful
monarch
and mediated some truces in Europe.
His imposition of
civil law on clergy was resisted by Becket,
but the trend toward
increasing
governmental authority was clear.
European progress accelerated in the 13th century
as national laws replaced feudalism.
England’s King John had to agree to the basic
legal rights of the Great Charter in 1215,
and during the fairly peaceful reign of Henry III (r. 1227-72)
elected parliament was instituted.
In 1231 Friedrich II replaced feudal practices
with imperial laws in Italy.
The weak were protected, and commerce
prospered with fairs and free trade.
In the second half of the 13th century German
princes elected foreigners as emperor,
giving more regional independence.
Italian cities gained strength with communes,
podestas, and guilds, but they often fought each other.
Shipping made Venice, Genoa,
and Pisa wealthy and powerful.
Philip II Augustus (r. 1180-1223)
expanded and centralized France.
The religious Louis IX led crusades but also instituted
reforms at home to reduce private violence.
Textile laborers organized in Flanders, and some emigrated.
In Spain Christians reconquered all the Muslim kingdoms
except Granada, which paid tribute.
They also developed universities.
Scandinavians gradually learned how to reduce civil wars
by developing laws, and German influence through
immigration promoted law also in eastern Europe.
The intellectual development of Europe was reborn in the
12th century as the advanced Arabic writings helped them
rediscover the philosophies of Plato and Aristotle.
Abelard taught theology at Paris and by telling of his
own difficult experiences encouraged self-knowledge.
Abbot Aelred of Rievaulx described the spiritual friendship
that many monks and nuns knew.
John of Salisbury criticized political corruption.
Hildegard of Bingen showed how a woman could excel
as a visionary mystic, musician, dramatist, and healer.
The horrible blight on the reputation of Christianity caused
by the foreign crusades was matched by vicious persecution
of the Cathars as heretics in the Albigensian crusade.
The burning of pacifist initiates and the institution of the
Inquisition to eliminate heretics showed the moral corruption,
insecure folly, and ignorant intolerance of the church authorities.
Dominic’s preaching order of brothers enabled them to be
more active in interacting with society than reclusive monks.
Francis of Assisi and his order of poor brothers concentrated
even more on helping the poor in pure ways.
Epics like the French Song of Roland were the most
significant early literature in the vernacular languages.
Stories of Charlemagne and Guillaume fighting the
Saracens and the poem of El Cid were probably
used as propaganda to inspire crusaders.
Songs by wandering troubadours expressed the feelings
of romantic love that usually went beyond marriage.
French Lais by Marie de France turned
these stories into moral lessons.
The cruder popular imagination could learn from the
fabliaux and the many tales about Reynard the fox.
The ideals of chivalry were expressed in the Arthurian
romances pioneered by Geoffrey of Monmouth in Latin
but developed with subtle sophistication in the French
poetry of Chrétien de Troyes and the German
poetry of Wolfram von Eschenbach.
Gottfried von Strassburg’s Tristan and the long Lancelot
cycle in French prose portrayed the difficulties and
consequences of romantic passion when it was with a queen.
Efforts to purify the behavior of knights with Christian
values in a quest for the holy grail seemed to show
that most knights were not ready to be saints.
The Norse sagas portrayed their Viking culture
and showed the development of their legal
procedures and transformation by Christianity.
The Bible and lives of the saints provided the
material the church would accept as its liturgy
spawned the rebirth of western theater.
After about five centuries of "dark ages" European
civilization
went through a tremendous development
in the 12th
and 13th centuries.
The earlier synthesis between the Roman empire
and
Christianity continued, especially in the eastern Byzantine
empire, where Greek was the educated language.
In the west education
was mostly
through the Church and was in Latin.
Religion was the
dominant concern in this age of belief,
and the culture may be
considered dark because
of its lack of science, literature and
theater.
The "barbarian" invasions that had overcome
the
western Roman empire brought new energy
but mostly a "might
is right" mentality.
Christianity spread, but often it was
by the threat of the sword.
This combination produced the era
of chivalry, a code of ethics
and manners that glorified knights
and their courage
while attempting to restrain their baser instincts
with
a quest for virtue and public service,
though this was by
the profession of a soldier.
Peculiar religious values such as the worship of relics and
holy places in Palestine led to the atrocious military campaigns
of conquest known as crusades.
Beginning with efforts to win back
territory in Spain from the
"infidel" Muslims, this
"war fever" spread throughout Europe
and motivated aristocrats
and others to leave their homes
for many years to travel great
distances
and fight for their religion.
Crusades in northern and
eastern Europe also spread
Christianity in these ethically deplorable
ways;
but the long-term results in the Middle East
proved to be
a disastrous failure.
Millions of lives were damaged and lost
by this violence,
and eventually the Muslims, who also believed
they
were fighting infidels, drove the crusaders out of Asia
and
were not much influenced by this
negative expression of Christianity.
The growing economic and technological power of western
Europe influenced by Venice also used the fourth crusade
to take control
of Constantinople
and most of the eastern empire for a time.
Ironically,
the educational development that was reborn
in the west was greatly
stimulated by the Arabic translations
of Greek classics and the
writings of Muslims
that were propagated in the large library
at Cordoba.
Gradually western Europe developed laws,
as populations increased
in size, commerce,
technology, and social organization.
The church
was very influential, but secular society developed
a feudal hierarchy
of lords and vassals that could mobilize
aristocratic knights
armed with horses
and better weapons for military campaigns.
Peasants
and serfs at the bottom of this system
were little better than
slaves.
Efforts by Church authorities to curtail this violence
did little,
except that the crusades did send many warriors
away
from Europe for a time.
The corruption of the Church by powerful
bishops holding
extensive lands even controlled monks such as
the Cistercians
by making them work as peasants.
The new orders
of preachers founded by Dominic and the
example of Francis of
Assisi, who lived in poverty
to help the poor, challenged these
traditions.
Yet the persecution of the Cathars by the Inquisition
was a terrible ethical blight on Christianity,
and it was supported
by many Dominicans and Franciscans.
The intellectual awakening of the 12th century in Europe
has
been called a renaissance and undoubtedly
led to that larger cultural
era.
The founding of universities and the teachings of men like
Abelard,
Albertus, Thomas Aquinas, and Bonaventure produced a
comprehensive synthesis of classical philosophy
and Christian
theology in the 13th century.
Hildegard of Bingen also showed
how much
a brilliant woman could contribute.
The ideas of Robert
Grosseteste and Roger Bacon
would lead to the development of science
and advanced technology.
In many ways this medieval synthesis
was a peak of prosperity
in Europe, because in the next century
wars and plague
would ravage western Europe.
The organization
of guilds, communes, city states in Italy,
and the development
of powerful monarchies in Germany,
France, England, Spain, and
other nations with secular laws
established the social and political
patterns
that would eventually make European culture dominant.
This chapter has been published in the book Medieval Europe 610-1300.
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